NASA to Hold Mars Mission Public Meeting

NASA officials discuss two controversial proposals next week concerning the 2009 Mars Science Laboratory mission, the U.S. space agency said.

During a Tuesday public meeting in Washington, D.C., NASA will present the two proposals for construction of a Mars mobile rover powered by a multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator and an alternative mission that would be powered by solar arrays.

Taking public comment will be Mark Dahl, NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory program executive; Richard Cook, project manager and Aswhin Vasavada, deputy project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and Kenneth Kumor of NASA’s Environmental Management Division.

The mobile robotic science laboratory is scheduled to be launched late in 2009 to determine if Mars has or had an environment that could support microbial life.